Statistics from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reveals, the textile and apparel industry (T&C) in Indonesia grew significantly to 18.98 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the 7.46 per cent growth registered during the same period last year. Production of large and medium manufacturing industries (IBS) in the first quarter of 2019 rose by 4.45 percent compared to the same period last year.

The increase in IBS production was sustained by the production of the apparel industry sector which skyrocketed to 29.19 percent due to the abundance of orders, especially from the export market. High growth in the textile industry occurred mainly due to the existence of substantial investment in the upstream sector, especially rayon producers. This can be seen from the operation of PT Asia Pacific Rayon (APR) in Riau at the end of 2018, with an investment of Rp11 trillion. The plant adds a production capacity of 240 thousand tonne per year, half of which is oriented to the needs of the export market.

In addition, increasing supply from upstream also encourages performance to the downstream and intermediate industries, so that cumulatively the industry gets more excited. The control policy on imports carried out by the government since February 2017 also led to a decline in imports which reached 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Production also increased due to the support provided by various vocational education and training activities conducted by the Ministry of Industry.